Commercial construction outputFebruary 2016

A slowdown in new office building has resulted in a reduction in commercial construction activity of nearly 8 per cent in the year to Q3 2015.

There was a total of £24.1bn of commercial work in the 12 months to the end of September, representing a 7.9 per cent drop versus the 12 months to the end of June.

The largest sector drop is in offices with starts down 35.1 per cent to £4bn, compared to £6.1bn in the year to June 2015. Of the £4bn in total offices, £2.1bn was in London, resulting in London and the South-east accounting for around 40 per cent of all the UK construction activity.

Regionally Northern Ireland recorded the largest growth with activity up by 23.8 per cent, the strongest growth in the English regions was recorded in the East Midlands up 19.1 per cent followed by Yorkshire and the Humber up by 11.4 per cent.